354 Dr. Stenhouse on the Products of the [June 15, 



tity, forming a red solution, which, on the application of a gentle heat, 

 changed to a fine purple colour ; this disappeared on raising the tempera- 

 ture, the whole of the oil dissolved, and a solution was obtained of a faint 

 greenish-black tinge. When this solution was largely diluted with water 

 it became nearly colourless, and on neutralization with chalk yielded (be- 

 sides the sulphate) an organic calcium-salt, very soluble in water. The 

 solution of the oil in sulphuric acid, when very strongly heated, blackened 

 and gave off sulphurous acid gas. Solutions of the alkalies, whether aqueous 

 or alcoholic, appear to have no action on the oil ; but when heated with 

 solid potash, it was decomposed with the production of compounds I am at 

 present investigating. 



Action of oxidizing Agents on Sulphide of PhenyL Sulphobenzolene. 

 When the oil C 12 H IO S was brought into contact with strong nitric acid, a 

 very violent action ensued, accompanied by the copious evolution of nitrous 

 fumes. The mixture was then boiled for an hour or two with occasional 

 addition of fresh nitric acid, and the solution thus obtained poured into a 

 large quantity of water, when a crystalline mass of a pale yellow colour was 

 precipitated. This, when perfectly dried, was reduced to powder and washed 

 with ether to remove a small quantity of adhering oil, and the partially puri- 

 fied product was recrystalhzed once or twice from benzol, and then several 

 times from spirit, collecting apart the first portions which separate. By 

 this means a substance in beautiful oblique prismatic crystals was obtained 

 in a state of perfect purity, whilst in the mother-liquors there remained a 

 large quantity of the same body mixed with a second substance crystallizing 

 in long needles, which, however, formed but an inconsiderable portion of 

 the whole. 



Although this is the method by which I first prepared the above de- 

 scribed substance crystallizing in oblique prisms, I have since employed a 

 process which yields it with greater facility and in a much purer state. Ten 

 parts by weight of water, five of concentrated sulphuric acid, and two of 

 sulphide of phenyl, were placed in a flask furnished with a long condensing- 

 tube, and to the mixture, kept boiling, three parts of acid chromate of 

 potassium were added in small portions at a time. The digestion continued 

 for twenty or thirty minutes, and the mixture was then allowed to cool. The 

 green liquid was poured off from the cake of crystals, which, after boiling with 

 water to free it from sulphuric acid, was dried. The nearly pure substance 

 was then crystallized, cnce from benzol and once from alcohol, when it formed 

 brilliant crystals which were perfectlv pure. A trace of the second sub- 

 stance previously mentioned, crystallizing in long needles, was found in the 

 benzol mother-liquors. By this last process, which is greatly preferable to 

 the nitric acid one, the rectified oil yielded its own weight of crystals. 



I. -338 grm. crystals gave '820 grm. CO a and -144 grm. H 2 O. 

 II. '346 grm. crystals gave '834 grm. CO 2 and -144 grm. H a O. 



